Cerilon, the start-up company working to build North America’s first gas-to-liquids base oil plant, said Tuesday that it has obtained one of the final environmental permits for its North Dakota project.
The company, which has not made a final investment decision for the project, said it has postponed its target date for commercial launch to 2029.
Cerilon, which is headquartered in Calgary, Canada, said in a news release that the Air Quality Division of North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality has granted a permit to construct the GTL facility near Williston, North Dakota. To reach that decision the division deemed the plant will comply with state and federal ambient air quality standards.
Cerilon used that conclusion to amplify its angle that the plant, which will use natural gas rather than crude oil for feedstock, is part of a shift toward more sustainable energy. Officials have said the facility will also employ carbon capture and sequestration to further combat greenhouse gas emissions.
The company has said the plant will use local natural gas to produce 24,000 barrels per day of petroleum products, including ultra-low-sulfur diesel, naphtha and Group III+ base oils. The only existing commercial scale facility making GTL base oils is a joint venture of Shell and Qatar Petroleum in Ras Laffan, Qatar. China does have multiple coal-to-liquids plants that gasify coal and then use similar Fischer-Tropsch technology to turn that gas into base oils and other petroleum products.
A Cerilon spokesman said the company has to obtain one more permit for the plant and expects to receive it soon. The company is still in the front-end engineering and design phase of the project, which among other things should help define costs, schedules and engineering details. The company is also working to raise financing and to make commercial arrangements for the products it will produce.
Officials said they plan to make a final investment decision in 2026 and to open the plant three years later.